Food Alchemy

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Our Culinary Philosophy

My idea of dinner has often involved little more than boiling up Maggi and throwing an egg it or heading to a restaurant. In early years, I took cooking for granted though I come from a cooking family. The first time I cooked Idli, I was merely obeying a recipe, counting off the hours until the batter was fermented and minutes until the steamer was hot. But now, I don't need the clock - I've learned how to smell the perfectly done Idli’s, how to see when the steam coming out changes its colour. Most things in life become automatic with time. After all this is the gift of experience - it allows us to pay less attention, so that we don't have to think about maintaining our balance on a bicycle, or shifting gears in a car. But with cooking the opposite happens - the more time we spend in the kitchen the more we notice. The act is intensified, layered with new subtleties. The dish is the same – Idli is too perfect to ever change - but my sense of it has become much richer. This is the moral of the kitchen - even the most mundane rituals deserve our attention. And maybe they deserve it most of all. To cook is to insist that every hunger is a potential occasion, not just for something delicious (because deliciousness can be easily bought), but for that quality of experience that comes when the flame is on high and the last dollop of butter is being whisked into the eggs. The pasta is perfectly boiled and there's the pile of parsley, waiting to be sprinkled over. It's all so fleeting - the food will soon be eaten, the mess will be cleaned up tomorrow - but Virginia Woolf was right: "Of such moments the thing is made that endures." We have taken a need and made a meal. Today, the restaurant experience involves a connection with all of the human senses. Then I decided this gap in my knowledge needed to be addressed. I started to realize that cooking might be the most important factor in fixing our health crisis. People who cook eat healthier diets. And this whole renaissance of farmers' markets and community supported agriculture that's going on right now—these are economies we should support, and they depend on cooking. It was the missing link I needed to explore. It was very common just a few decades ago, for cooks and chefs to protect their methods and recipes from others. Today, we know that an important part of our job is to develop others, to share what we know, and to take on the role of teacher. Food Safety is a moral obligation first. Sure, there is a legal obligation but at Food Alchemy we take our responsibility for food safety very seriously.

- Jayteerth Katti, Founder & Creative